According to the most recent estimates of the
trustees of the Social Security Trust Funds, expenditures
for old age, survivors, and disability
benefits will exceed income by about $5.6
billion during 1977. This is substantially higher
than the $3.9 billion deficit that the trustees
forecast one year ago. The trust fund for disability
payments is expected to be exhausted
in 1979, and the trust fund for old age and survivors
benefits in 1983, unless something is
done to increase the income of these funds in
the near future. Furthermore, the problem is
not simply short-ranged and caused by the recent
high levels of unemployment and inflation.
The social security system will have
progressively increasing deficits year after
year unless changes are made in the method
of financing, the system for determining
benefits, or both. The trustees estimate that
over the next 75 years the average tax rate will
have to be about 75 percent higher than the
rate (including scheduled increases) provided
for by current law to balance revenues and
benefit payments.